What a Good Friend is Worth
by pirate-pet
Summary: What is a friend really worth? Why, even the smallest gesture of friendship as simple smile can be enough to save a life. Perhaps, then, a true friend is worth a life.


**A/N: **Pirate-pet feels weird submitting a Naruto fiction XD I really am obsessed with Naruto, though, team 8 especially. I don't like One Piece at… all. Anyways, enjoy!

A silent summer breeze swept like a wave through the inside of Konoha, stirring up stray sakura petals that lay in piles along the curbs of the concrete islands dotted throughout the city, and slicing through the tall cypress tree tops, sending their leaves and limbs into a feverish rustle. He breathed out quietly into the warm July, his head tipping forward ever so slightly at the motion overruled by _e_motion. Why? That was the only question he had been killing himself over the past day and a half. Why had he gotten away? Why had he not been able to stop him?! He ground his teeth together in pure frustration; his jawbones were already aching enough from previous repetition of the action, and here he went again. He hated himself. He wanted to punish himself for not being good _enough_. 'You're no ninja- you're not worthy of that title, nor the rank of chuunin. They made a mistake….' His uncovered, pale, stark blue eyes opened up emotionlessly to the rather placid world around him, a world untainted by his hidden and growing frustration. His shoulders tensed under his loose black short-sleeved shirt as his pale hands balled into fists at his sides. '_Why_?!'

* * *

_The entire forest seemed to stand still in the intensity of the moment; they had finally cornered him- the man behind Akatsuki- Uchiha Madara. Their six-man cell, along with senseis Hatake Kakashi and Yamato, stood in defensive positions as the orange masked man stared down on their formation with little interest._

_"Shino…?" Kakashi's monotone voice drawled its way into Shino's eardrums._

_"I know."_

_"Times like this," Kakashi slowly began to inform his brunette counterpart, "are when secret clan techniques like Shino's are most useful." Yamato nodded and refocused his attention back on the boy who was currently summoning several hundred, if not thousand, kikaichuu to his disposal. His face leaked no emotion; in all actuality, it couldn't, being covered up from chin to nose in a black high collar, and hairline to eyebrows in mint green jacket fabric. Not to mention the ink black goggle-glasses he wore, which helped to further conceal his face. 'I'm gonna get this….'_

_"Ewwww, you're an ABURAME?" The rather discernable voice of Madara could be heard once more from the branches above. Kakashi's face did not falter in the least- he had trust placed in Shino. A pair of Byakuugan eyes, as well as the slit pupils familiar to the Inuzuka clan fixed themselves on the tan, brown ringed cape currently flapping wildly behind their teammate. "Not the bugs! Groooos!!" The pupiless violet eyes of Hyuuga Hinata still remained glued with worry to her comrades back as the Inuzuka's almost seemed to smile._

_"You're __**actually **__pumped up, Shino!" His voice, strong against the whirring wings of the insects, was heavily laden with amusement as his normally stoic teammate's chakra flared along with what the kikaichuu had already eaten away at._

_"Of course I am. Why? Because I was left out of the previous mission."_

_"Same old Shino." The dognin whispered quietly to Akamaru, receiving a muffled whimper in return._

_Shino wasn't about to let this opportunity slip from his grasp. He was up against Akatsuki, he knew that, but he still knew he had an upper hand in this battle; even if he lost, he still had his teammates to carry out the rest of the fight. He settled on the final thought that they would defeat Madara __**together **__before commanding his kikaichuu. "Fly." He barely breathed the word, but with the strong, symbiotic relationship he had with his insects, he need not even speak for them to know his wish._

_"Aww, nasty!" The orange-masked nin jumped up and out of range of the destruction bugs currently flooding the forest floor below his sandaled feet._

_Naruto jumped forward from his position next to Kiba; "What the heck, he just jumped out of the way!!" The blonde leaf ninja gritted his teeth together. At least __**he **__had been able to __**sort of**__ hit him with rasengan… but this guy wasn't even trying!_

_"The Aburames," Kakashi began once more after hearing Naruto's outburst, "don't fight by focusing their attacks on a single point. Their forte is taking control of a wide, large area __**around **__the enemy."_

_"You never really worked with Shino, Naruto…" Kiba cut into Kakashi's last statement, pride riding on his voice as he spoke of his teammate. No matter how many times he got into pointless fights with Shino, or how much he teased Hinata over her fanciful crush on Naruto, he loved to see his comrades improve- but more than that, he liked to brag on them. "Just stand back and let him do his thing. Unless you want a few bug bites, too!" His sentence ended distorted by a chuckle. Oh yeah, bug bites… fleas._

_"Spread." Airily the word flew from the young Aburame heir's lips, carrying on his signal to his kikaichuu to begin the final stage of his patented clan technique._

_"What the-?!" Madara began to back up along the branch he was standing on, careful to avoid any of the flying insects currently begin to cloud his sight. Shino's face did not falter in the least as he pressed on with his technique. 'If I don't kill him, they will….' "He can't get out of this" he heard Kakashi's voice beat against his concentration, "Avoiding all those bugs simply isn't possible". A vote of certain victory- he would have to thank his replacement sensei later. _

_"Nice!" Naruto's over-excited voice reverberated into his eardrums, and with that, he was snapped out of his happy state of mind and into his rather pessimistic-realistic thought train. He hated that blonde. A lot. 'Will he run, or try to slip through them…?' His mind mulled quietly in the background of the steady hum of insect wings and Naruto singing some kind of "I hate Akatsuki" song. 'Either way, I'll learn how his jutsu works.'_

_"Swarm." The last signal to his newest acquired secret technique "Insect Globe". His technique would command his insects to engulf the target, rendering them paralyzed while slowly siphoning off their chakra. Although, in this case he would have to work quicker than slow, sacrificing a massive amount of his own chakra into the technique to gain more from the opponent._

_Naruto paused in his happy "Anti Akatsuki" song to gain a defensive position with one foot slid back into the dirt behind him and one fist raised slightly in the air. "Heck yeah! Get 'em, Shino!" Shino lifted his head slightly to watch the insect jutsu unfolding infront of him._

_"I'll finish this." Never mind about the teammates, he'd drain this guy's chakra faster than even Shikamaru's intellect could comprehend. "Why? Not only am I part of the mission, but I must make up for not being there last time, as well."_

_"Haagh- you're __**still **__upset about that?" Kiba muttered mostly to himself, but gained a rather annoyed look from Sakura. "What?" He mouthed silently in his defense as she rolled her verdant green eyes away from his direction. 'Stupid woman….'_

_Madara tumbled backwards on the tree as he was hit full force by the segmented swarm of insects at each side. His grunts of confusion were only overridden by the sighs of relief and astonishment from the rest of the squad. 'D-did he actually win? The bugs are swallowing him up… I can't believe he can control all those tiny insects so easily….' The pink-haired kunoichi let her lively gaze wander from the Akatsuki missing-nin, currently being suffocated in some sense by Shino's kikaichuu, to Shino, before complying to the feeling Kiba was glaring at her and flashing him a dirty look only she, or possibly Ino, could manage._

_"How does it look, Hinata?" It was Kakashi's voice to break the tense silence._

_"R-right! I can confirm the target's chakra- he's still inside Shino-kun's bugs." Hinata's voice was barely a whisper, and disregarded by every one except Kakashi, Shino and Kiba, as another bug noise. 'If he's still in there, and this isn't a clone, it's time we take a more direct action and kill this guy….' Kakashi tensed, resting one hand over his kunai pouch, signaling everyone else to due so._

_"Yamato!" He barked at the brunette wood-user._

_"On it! We can attack anytime!" He clapped his hands together in a seal, forcing the wood around him to surge in thick cube-shaped fingers for their target who was currently obscured by Shino's kikaichuu._

_"How're we doing, Shino?" Kakashi turned to face the Aburame who was currently in a rather open stance, using his arms to almost physically keep his bugs in place._

_"He's still in there…" came the gravelly reply; "How can I tell? Because the movement of my kikaichuu indicate they're still absorbing his chakra…" He trailed off without pronouncing the end of his sentence. 'This guy has a lot of chakra.'_

_"Alright! Suck him dry, Shino!" Naruto again. But this time, it wasn't the blonde's annoying voice that grabbed his attention- the man, Akatsuki… he was gone! Shino froze, feet locked to the ground and knees locked in place. 'No!' Slowly, the bugs began to return to their master on rueful, beating wings._

_"How can this be?" The six-man cell stared on, dumbfounded as bugs seemed to tear the man into pieces, only, the man was gone- vanished. "My bugs were reacting to his chakra, and they just… lost him. This is… unprecedented." Shino managed, letting his arms fall back to his sides. He slipped his hands into his pockets and curled his fists together. His cheeks suddenly felt hot; was he embarrassed? Embarrassed at his sudden spotlight, his chance to show everyone how much he'd improved, and muck it? Was it his judgement suddenly proved false by lack of ability to back it up…? _

_He wasn't really listening as the rest of the conversation progressed. His was so disappointed in himself…. Failure was something he never submitted to, something that couldn't possibly affect him… and here he was, failing to stop Akatsuki, failing to help retrieve Sasuke, failing to succeed as chuunin the first time around, failing to… he stopped at the mention of teleportation jutsu from the candy-haired kunoichi and decided to set them straight. "No… it wasn't teleportation." For the first time, he felt weak while speaking. Was this how Hinata always felt…? "How do I know? Because teleportation is merely high-speed movement- the bugs would've sensed the direction he moved in and pursued. They wouldn't let him escape." 'But I did….' Ignoring the rest of the comments on their new nemesis, he preferred to seclude himself within his shell; within his newly received cloak, his mint hoodie, his high-collar black over coat, and his teal undershirt. No one would find him._

_"I found him! He's up there!" Hinata's voice chirped above the commotion._

_"Oh! Hi guys!"_

_"Guuh- I can't __**take **__this anymore! Akamaru!" Kiba yelled. "You can't hide from my nose, loser!" Shino turned, slightly alarmed as his partner and his partner's dog companion leapt into the air, forming two great, spinning vortexes of energy before combining together in the final stage of the Inuzuka's secret clan technique. "Wolf Fang Over Fang!" The chakra from the attack glew in feral radiance on the rest of the group; the boy's hatred of the man had been combined in his blind attempt to rend him to pieces… and far too calmly had the man literally skipped out of Kiba's range, completely avoiding his attack and sending the tattoo-faced boy spiraling through the thick tree limb where his target once stood. In the next few moments the entire grove clearing was showered by an uneven spray of tree bark splinters. Hinata stifled a small gasp that threatened its way past her lips with a quick hand to her mouth; Shino's mostly hidden face only allowed slight concern to be written across his visible features as his teammates spiraled towards the rocky, moss-laden forest floor below. Over the years, Akamaru had grown closer and closer to him and Hinata to a point where he seemed almost human, and therefore Shino considered the massive nindog a teammate, and a valuable one at that. _

_"KIBA, YOU CAN'T JUST JUMP OUT ON YOUR OWN!" Sakura's voice bellowed out over the next earthen explosion caused by Kiba and Akamaru, though this time their technique drilled into the very earth itself and the explosion consisted of large fragments of hard rock and dirt. Naruto stepped back warily as Sakura proceeded to stomp towards the currently unconscious Kiba; if the ground hadn't have already been tilled up and ruptured, the blonde kyuubi container was sure her malice-filled steps would have shaken the ground to pieces, if not cause some sort of earthquake. He quietly pondered the idea of Sakura starting an earthquake._

_"Slipped through him again…." Kiba muttered, half-dazed as he erected himself from the pile of rocks surrounding him._

_"Um… actually…"_

_"Well…"_

_"Kiba-kun… he just side-stepped you…."_

* * *

The rest, Shino didn't really remember. He figured it wasn't as important as the big error he made on the battlefield. Letting Akatsuki slip by with a simple Space/Time ninjutsu…! Who was he anyway? Certainly not the Shino he had hoped he was….

With his shoulders slouched in a position where he was leaning over his knees, he couldn't see much around him. Only the cobblestone road beneath his feet, littered here and there with sakura flowers blown from the surrounding trees graced his vision. 'I should've done better.' He lifted his gaze to meet the sight of his dognin teammate chewing contentedly at a dumpling, his eyes never leaving the food for more than a moment. They had come out here, to the inside city of Konoha, for lunch. Kiba had been the one to organize the get together… he just wanted Shino to pay. Sure he said something about teammates sticking together- what a load of garbage. Shino didn't even know why he agreed anymore. Perhaps he just needed a chance to get out of the house where he felt everyone was watching him. "There's the Aburame clan heir- the one that failed the _retrieval _mission" he pictured them saying as he walked by. All they were supposed to do was find Sasuke… they hadn't even come close.

Shino sighed and turned so his back was towards Kiba, causing his forest green sweat pants to wrinkle at his knees. The Inuzuka's chewing was wearing at his _**last nerve**_. Anymore of the annoying chomping pounding against his sensitive ears and he would take the _**Kami cursed **_dumpling and shove it down his windpipe. 'That would teach him to chew too loud….' Shino crossed his arms loosely across his chest and let his shoulders sag once more. 'Why-?'

"Hey, Shino…?" Kiba looked from one half eaten dumpling stick to the still wholly intact one clutched within his left hand, before nervously bringing his black eyes up to meet the cold demeanor which was his teammate. "Shino," he called quietly to the hunched figure which was still turned away from him, "are you still upset about… you know… failing the mission?" Another sigh and the bug user turned to throw him a flat stare with his emotionless sky-blue eyes.

"If I am to inherit my clan, I cannot be weak- or fail- in any aspect. Why? Because I have expectations to live up to, and… leaderships duties… I… have to live up to him…." Shino's voice slowly faded into the breeze that pushed past the two friends. He wasn't a prodigy in the art of ninjutsu, nor was he over-intellectually gifted; yet he was the son of Aburame Shibi, leader and pride of the Aburame clan…. Shino tilted his head to the side as he absentmindedly drug his gaze away from his teammate who was looking on him with great concern. 'I heard he never failed a mission.'

Kiba frowned at his rather oblivious comrade. 'Jeez, I've never seen him so down in the dumps. I mean, boy can he get moody, but I think this is different. I sure feel bad for him; having that much pressure to inherit his clan must be eating away at him….' "Never again will I tease Hinata for stuttering." Shino would've turned silently to face his teammate, but the coarse material in his pants and the slight scrape of his sandals against the cobblestone gave away his curiosity. The Inuzuka only smiled sheepishly at the rather annoyed face his bugnin friend was making.

"What? I will never again tease Hinata for stuttering! That's a good thing!" He called helplessly to his teammate as he rose from his position on the bench they had been sitting at for the past thirty minutes and began to slowly shuffle off along the tree lined edge of Konoha, hands in pockets, pale eyes sweeping over the road before him. Shino was going to go home and kill himself- what else could he do? What else was he _worth_? His father would select a better heir than him, he knew.

The brown haired dog-nin looked frantically from dumplings to comrade before sliding off the dumplings in his right hand with his tongue and chewing at them wildly. "Hey, Shino!" He spit out pieces of masticated food as he spoke; his mouth was stuffed to its fullest, nearly making his shout incoherent. The Inuzuka trotted up to where Shino had stopped and swallowed his food politely before continuing. He knew how much his rude habits bothered his well-bred teammates, and eating with his mouth full was somewhere in the top ten for the Aburame. "Shino." Shino pivoted slowly on his right heel just as another warm gust of wind kicked up, ruffling its way through the boys' spiky hair.

Kiba smiled broadly, revealing his sharp, rather enlarged canines and distorting the red fang marks across his cheeks. "You'll make a great leader of the Freaky Bug Clan someday." Shino lifted his pale face in an almost awe-induced trance. Was Kiba being _nice _to him…? Sometimes with Kiba it was hard to tell, but…. Shino watched as the boy's grin melted into a heartfelt smile, something rarely seen on the Inuzuka's face, and something very unexpected due to his rather brash personality. "Here." Shino felt the other dumpling stick he'd paid for being placed in his hand and the smallest of smiles crossed his lips as he grasped the treat firmly in the palm of his hand.

"Thank you, Kiba. For the words of encouragement… and returning a small deal of the rather large sum of money you owe me." Kiba's smile twisted back into his toothy grin.

"No prob. After all, what're friends for?"

* * *

**A/N: **Well, it's 11:44 A.M. now. Happy 4th all you American people! Also, I've only proofread this once, so please feel free to point out any mistakes!! Anyways, hope you enjoyed reading this! I'm one of those people whose favorite stories to read are the ones about cute parent/child relationships, and guy FRIENDSHIPS. I don't support gayness… so this is my friendship fic! Unfortunately, there aren't many else like it out here… looks around


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